Switching? DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL!

After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.

MISTAKE------

This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800 number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.

If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head's up. What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.

"Larry W4CSC" <noone@home.com> wrote in messagenews:Xns95557C433F207w4csc@63.223.5.244...> After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I> paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment> was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage> before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.>> MISTAKE------>> This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because> I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800> number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO> FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.>> If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE> SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head'sup.> What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.

This is nothing new, spcs did this to me when I left them, for about 5months I kept receiving an invoice showing a credit balance, then on month 6I got a check.

> After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I > paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment > was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage > before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.> > MISTAKE------> > This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because > I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800 > number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO > FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.

That's fine. I got told the same thing.

It will *not* be longer than four weeks, or I'll have to call and start bugging them.

However, I'm ok as long as I actually get the check within that timeframe.

I generally figure a company that large will do check payments in batches. I'm not really in too much of a hurry to get my $19.82 sent back to me.

> If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE > SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head's up. > What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.

I don't think it's a big deal. Not for the small amount of money they owe me.

If everyone thought of it that way the companies would be even richer. Look at it from a reverse perspective. In this day and age I pay most if not all my invoices electronically via the web or telephone. They get their payments in 1-2 days right out of my account. Now if you stop service or change providers the very same company will tell you that it takes 30-90 days to make your final invoice (Yeah right), the reason given is just in case you used long distance if you have long distance or not (Figure that one out), for wireless they speak of "Roaming Charges" and a few other things. If they can get their money in 2 days it should take that long to get it back. Now considering you already paid the invoice and are looking for a refund the company actually holds your money hostage. Hey they have it and now can drag their feet on giving it back. But your correct in that you should never let them get away with it and should bug the hell out of them to get it back.

> If everyone thought of it that way the companies would be even richer.

Whoa. I'm not saying "I don't care if they cut the check."

> Look > at it from a reverse perspective. In this day and age I pay most if not all > my invoices electronically via the web or telephone. They get their payments > in 1-2 days right out of my account. Now if you stop service or change > providers the very same company will tell you that it takes 30-90 days to > make your final invoice (Yeah right),

It IS stupid. I just don't care enough to argue that they should give it to me in 3-4 days instead of 3-4 weeks. They can't electronically debit my checking account, since they don't have my account info. And unless I'm missing something from having held several credit card merchant accounts over the past six years, they can't do a credit to my credit card without having a purchase to credit agains.

> for wireless they speak of "Roaming Charges" and a few other things. If they > can get their money in 2 days it should take that long to get it back.

Not in my case. Now, I don't think it'd be unreasonable to ask them to *mail a check* in 1-2 business days. But I'm not going to bother arguing with them.

> considering you already paid the invoice and are looking for a refund the > company actually holds your money hostage. Hey they have it and now can drag > their feet on giving it back. But your correct in that you should never let > them get away with it and should bug the hell out of them to get it back.

They made a promise, and I will hold them to it. If the money comes sooner, cool! If not, as long as it is still within the promised timeframe, I'm not going to worry about it.

>"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message >news:cgvkia$qcm$2@ratbert.glorb.com...><snip>>> I don't think it's a big deal. Not for the small amount of money they owe >> me.>>

<snip>

>If everyone thought of it that way the companies would be even richer. Look >at it from a reverse perspective. In this day and age I pay most if not all

Yeah, I never worry about credit balances. And I don't [usually] careif it takes a couple of months to get the refund. But yeah, thesecompanies gamble that we the customers don't care. So they're makinglots of interest on this.

> Yeah, I never worry about credit balances. And I don't [usually] care> if it takes a couple of months to get the refund. But yeah, these> companies gamble that we the customers don't care. So they're making> lots of interest on this.

In aggregate, when you total up the credits due to all of their customers, yes.

They owe me $19.82, though, and they won't make much interest on that amount of money in less than a month.

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in messagenews:ch010j$sro$2@ratbert.glorb.com...> PaulAlex7000 wrote:>> > Yeah, I never worry about credit balances. And I don't [usually] care> > if it takes a couple of months to get the refund. But yeah, these> > companies gamble that we the customers don't care. So they're making> > lots of interest on this.>> In aggregate, when you total up the credits due to all of their customers,yes.>> They owe me $19.82, though, and they won't make much interest on thatamount of> money in less than a month. >> --

Makes me wonder how many months they would have to hold it before theinterest equals the postage (and check cost, computer time, stuffing costsetc). postage alone is about 4 months...

In article <ch00v2$sro$1@ratbert.glorb.com>,Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote:>Elector wrote:>> for wireless they speak of "Roaming Charges" and a few other things. If they >> can get their money in 2 days it should take that long to get it back.>>Not in my case. Now, I don't think it'd be unreasonable to ask them to *mail a >check* in 1-2 business days. But I'm not going to bother arguing with them.

I think that the deal with "roaming" is that some (usually small) roamingpartners will batch their bill to VZW for VZW phones roaming on them.VZW may not get the bill for a month or so, so VZW doesn't know untilthat long what your final bill will be.

Of course, the counter-argument is that VZW knows if there are someoutstanding roaming bills, since the roaming provider had to authenticateyou when you placed or received calls on their system. It there are nooutstanding roaming charges, then there is no reason to not settleyour account immediately.

CharlesH wrote:>> Of course, the counter-argument is that VZW knows if there are some> outstanding roaming bills, since the roaming provider had to> authenticate you when you placed or received calls on their system.> It there are no outstanding roaming charges, then there is no reason> to not settle your account immediately.

Not exactly true? You will be authenticated simply by having yourphone turned on in a roaming area. Many will be authenticated andnot have any outstanding roaming bill(s). I imagine they have controlledaccess to the registries but do not track individual accesses. And itprobably wouldn't be worth the overhead to differentiate those whohad no lookups. ...Then what do you say to the customer that says"His got settled right away and I *know* I haven't made any roamingcalls?". "We know you have been in a roaming area. We won't knowif you made any calls for some time".

We've been told that it may be up to three billing cycles. So, 3-4 weekssounds like a good deal. dr"Larry W4CSC" <noone@home.com> wrote in messagenews:Xns95557C433F207w4csc@63.223.5.244...> After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I> paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment> was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage> before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.>> MISTAKE------>> This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because> I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800> number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO> FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.>> If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE> SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head'sup.> What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.>>

> After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I > paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment > was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage > before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.> > MISTAKE------> > This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because > I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800 > number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO > FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.> > If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE > SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head's up. > What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.> >

Jerome Zelinske wrote:> How much will the late fee be?> > > Larry W4CSC wrote:> >> After a long argument with the CSR at the main VZW office, like a fool, I >> paid my Verizon bill last month, in full as usual. I was told the payment >> was for LAST month, not this, and another bill would show the 1 day usage >> before I moved on to Alltel, the Monday after my contract was up.>> >> MISTAKE------>> >> This morning I get a bill showing a $31 and change CREDIT balance, because >> I overpaid. NO CHECK, OF COURSE, JUST A CREDIT BALANCE. Called VZW's 800 >> number off the bill, finally got a TSR who told me it would be THREE TO >> FOUR WEEKS before I got the check from Accts Payable.>> >> If you're leaving Verizon, DO NOT PAY YOUR LAST BILL UNTIL YOU GET THE >> SECOND BILLING STATEMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU REALLY OWE.... Just a head's up. >> What they're telling you is BULLSHIT.>> >>

Larry thinks the universe exists for his convenience. Flipping outbecause a huge corporation takes a couple of weeks to cut a $31 refundcheck is way over the top.

> Bottom line is Steve the company can issue any credits it desires to. > Credit cards can be paid in full and you can still have a credit > posted to it.

Sure, *as long as* the company has a prior purchase to credit against. I'm not talking about the bank itself. I'm talking about the automated systems used by merchants. No matter where I've worked, if I worked somewhere that took credit cards and had the authority to do credits, I'd always have to enter an original authorization code or invoice number.

> And if you can pay instantly via your bank card or check card to these > companies then it should take just as long to get the refund. Seconds > not weeks or 3 months like the Dr. posted.

In my case, it's possible that they *can't* do the credit because there was no prior charge to match it against. And I don't believe they have my checking account number.

In article <1093914514.675980@sj-nntpcache-3>,Quick <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote:>CharlesH wrote:>>>> Of course, the counter-argument is that VZW knows if there are some>> outstanding roaming bills, since the roaming provider had to>> authenticate you when you placed or received calls on their system.>> It there are no outstanding roaming charges, then there is no reason>> to not settle your account immediately.>>Not exactly true? You will be authenticated simply by having your>phone turned on in a roaming area. Many will be authenticated and>not have any outstanding roaming bill(s). I imagine they have controlled>access to the registries but do not track individual accesses. And it>probably wouldn't be worth the overhead to differentiate those who>had no lookups. ...Then what do you say to the customer that says>"His got settled right away and I *know* I haven't made any roaming>calls?". "We know you have been in a roaming area. We won't know>if you made any calls for some time".

Point taken. But I wonder what percentage of terminating customershave roamed in the last month or so of their service. If you haven'ttravelled recently you probably haven't been in a roaming area. Butthere is probably little incentive for them to determine this; justalways use the same interval.